STAY INFORMED

• Mobile time is now displayed inside a clock button with a tooltip.
• The Quick Actions panel and Vehicle panel are now combined into a toggleable panel accessed from the top-nav info icon.
• Added a “Users Online” button to mobile view.
• Currency and Stats sections have been swapped on the desktop HUD.
• Shop descriptions updated for clarity.
• Arena equipment now opens in a popup instead of showing all nine slots directly, greatly improving mobile usability.

• Fixed an issue where cooking could not begin if a finished item remained in the queue.
• Resolved a bug that caused level-up messages to appear for every collected cooked item.

• Corrected the regeneration tooltip for non-subscribers in the main HUD.

• Guest accounts can no longer access Escrow or Factions.

• NPC order reversed: your next unlock now appears at the top of the list.
• New Arena format: consecutive one-on-one survival battles until victory or death.
• First-time Arena completions now award a larger reward; repeat runs still reward Rustbacks, XP, and drops.
• NPCs retain their original loot tables and drop rates.
• Arena completions now reward Bone Shards.

• Healing Herbs (25%) renamed to Herb Chews.
• Healing Herbs (50%) renamed to Berry Bites.

• Escrow redesigned with a cleaner layout and improved user flow.
• Escrow now supports Rustbacks, Tabs, Gems, Materials, Ingredients, Tools, and Gear for safe trading.

• Now displays Character Level, Crafting Level, Cooking Level, and future skills as they release.
• Shows core stats: Strength, Defense, Speed, and Wheelwork.
• Materials and Ingredients now appear directly in the panel while exploring the world.

Last week I introduced Wreckage City to the world for the first time and opened the doors to the very early closed beta.

Wreckage City is a text-based wasteland RPG built around scavenging, survival, and long-term progression inside the broken remains of a dead metropolis. Twisted highways hang over cratered streets, neon signs flicker through dust and smoke, vehicles sit half-melted into the pavement, and small outposts cling to life in the ruins. From inside that world you build your own settlement, unlock new structures, expand systems, and push character progression through scavenging, combat, and resource management. The game draws inspiration from Torn, Zed City, Twisted Metal, and Vigilante 8. WC features traditional Mafia mechanics, in-depth crafting & cooking systems, a PVE character vs NPC battle engine, a vehicular combat battle engine, and a passionate developer who loves PBBGs.

Since the first wastelander arrived, the closed beta has been very active. Feedback has been coming in constantly, and updates have been pushed almost daily. Below is a full breakdown of this week's major improvements and new systems.

Wreckage City's closed beta had a major week of development. Progression expanded with new crafting items, mining tools, woodcutting updates, and rebalanced house upgrades. The Arena received its biggest overhaul yet with 50 Novice enemies, new gear, accessories, durability, and persistent health. A full Awards System with more than 200 achievements is now live. Security and onboarding were rebuilt with stronger authentication, smarter sessions, device and IP logging, rate limits, bot protection, reCAPTCHA, and a fully redesigned login and registration flow. Guest Mode was added for instant play with limited features. The UI and mobile experience saw major cleanup, new components, optimized buttons, performance improvements, and clearer item displays. Wreckage City now installs as a PWA for mobile users. While in closed beta, guest mode still requires an invite code from our Discord.

• Expanded settlement systems (power, water, food)
• Vehicle combat expansion
• Faction expansion
• Gear sets
• World map progression and exploration, adding POI to the global Atlas
• Survivors idle mechanics including resource generation and infrastructure management
• Settlement customization: rename your settlement, describe it, create a flag, and more

Progression received a solid boost this week. A new House upgrade, the Scrap Chair, now provides +5 Energy. All existing House upgrades now require Scrap to bring the resource flow and theme together. Each structure now also has an upgrade to boost your max health.

Crafting expanded with new recipes for Shivs, Bone Knives, and a new Canteen. The Scrap Pick was introduced as a new tool and unlocked a new Mining action category to diversify early-game resource options. Woodcutting now drops Pine Logs as well, improving the early crafting loop.

House upgrades were fully rebalanced. The Cookhouse and future Distillery gained new ingredients including Edible Plants, Grains, and Honey which expands cooking and resource processing.

Combat received its largest update to date. Starter gear can now be earned directly from Arena encounters, and equipment stats now matter significantly more. The Arena roster grew substantially with Novice tier now featuring 50 enemies. Each enemy has proper drops including tools, charms, earrings, crafting materials, and starter gear. Two new accessories, the Scrapyard Charm and Scrap Earrings, were added this week.

Arena health is now persistent, carrying forward between fights until healed. Gear now has durability and will eventually break if not repaired or replaced. Multi-attack mechanics are now fully implemented. Accuracy values beyond 100 percent give additional hit attempts. At 150 percent accuracy you gain two full hit attempts. At 350 percent accuracy you gain three full attempts and a chance at a fourth. There is no maximum limit on stacking accuracy. You can now use consumables while fighting in the Arena, and you can view gear durability decrease live.

The Awards System is now available with more than 200 awards across the game. These track crafting, survival, combat, settlement building, and more. Awards can be viewed in the settlement stats popup and will continue to grow as a core long-term progression system.

• Added user logging, device fingerprinting, and IP management
• Smarter session handling and persistent session cookies
• Action outcome logging for better debugging
• Rate limits for guest accounts by IP
• Automatic blocking of known bots
• Google reCAPTCHA v3 integration

Players are now kept logged in via long-term session cookies for up to 14 days. A new Security section in Settings allows players to view all active sessions and log out other devices remotely.

The login, registration, and landing pages were redesigned. Login and registration now use modals rather than separate pages. The landing page now includes a roadmap and a new tab icon. Guest Mode is live, letting players start instantly without an account. Guest Mode has limitations:

• No Factions
• No User Market
• No Escrow
• No player-to-player interactions
• Accounts auto-delete after 30 days of inactivity
• Accounts remain logged in and warn before expiring

Closed beta still requires an invite code for both normal and guest accounts.

• Action UI optimized for mobile
• Attempt button moved above action stats
• Action results appear inside the action image container
• Refill buttons condensed for mobile layout

• Building requirement UI redesigned
• Notifications page rebuilt with bulk actions
• Larger inventory buttons
• Durability indicators added to item lists
• Tooltips improved
• Structures can be viewed or upgraded without entering them
• Consumables usable inside Arena battles
• Arena rewards show larger, clearer icons

• Removed unused/duplicate JavaScript modules
• Optimized CSS across multiple components

Wreckage City can now be installed as a Progressive Web App on mobile. It provides a stable, app-like experience for mobile players.

• Salvage For Parts now regenerates attempts every 10 minutes
• Regular members max: 100, Premium members max: 150
• City page reorganized, link to The Cage removed temporarily

Thanks to everyone who joined the closed beta this week. Your feedback is shaping the core of the game and helping steer development in the right direction. More updates are already underway. See you in the wasteland.